A sponsored walk around 25 of the churches in the St Albans district is taking place instead of an annual street collection.

Fundraisers will be traversing the length of the district from Sandridge to Chiswell Green, with the walk spanning just under 20 miles.

The second week of May is traditionally when church members visit door-to-door to collect money for Christian Aid, but for the second year in a row this has been cancelled due to the pandemic.

Hatfield Road Methodist Church member Anne Wall decided to beat the £1,100 collected last year by doing something different.

She explained: "We have joined forces with our sister churches, Marlborough Road and Trinity URC, and are planning to walk round 25 of the churches in the St Albans district, which according to my calculations and Google maps this is nearly 18 miles.

"We will be going to St Leonard's in Sandridge in the north and Greenwood URC in Chiswell Green in the south. There are six of us so far who are planning to walk the entire route but we also have enough people who would like to walk shorter distances and so form a relay team.

"Our oldest participant so far is 80 years old and the youngest is just seven."

In 2019 the total collected house-to-house across the city was £25,000 and although theyare unlikely to get anywhere near that amount, participants are hoping to reach a figure of several thousand pounds.

Anne added: "Christian Aid does wonderful work in the developing world, using its money to fund projects such as providing clean water, building schools and equipping hospitals.

"It would be a great shame if St Albans was unable to support them in some way this year."

Trinity URC will also be holding a book sale to raise money for Christian Aid which will take place on May 15 outside the front of their church in Beaconsfield Road.

You can sponsor them via their JustGiving page at
Justgiving.com/fundraising/anne-wall2-thewesleywalkers